


Can You Tell Me (if I'm Right or Wrong)

by Rai_Knightshade



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, And there was only one office, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fist Fights, Idiots in Love, Jill Deserves a Raise, M/M, Matty is Done With Your Shit Guys, Mutual Pining, PTSD, Panic Attacks, betting pools, enemies to friends to lovers speedrun in 64 days, not all tags are relevant for chapter 1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22649845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rai_Knightshade/pseuds/Rai_Knightshade
Summary: Mac and Jack are professors of chemical engineering and military history, respectively; what happens when after a tumultuous first meeting, they're made to share an office for 64 days as punishment?Aka the Professors!Macdalton au that everyone's been clamoring for since forever.
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 39





	Can You Tell Me (if I'm Right or Wrong)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CicciTheDreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CicciTheDreamer/gifts), [The_Phoenix_Heralds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Phoenix_Heralds/gifts).



> Hey guys! This is that professors!Macdalton au that me, Cicci, and Blackbeak have been brainstorming! A lot of people seemed to like the concept we had going, so I (Rai) have decided to actually write at least some of it in-between working on the Bradyverse And other fics. Not sure how updates are gonna work just yet or how many chapters this is going to end up being (motivation is a fickle thing), but I'm gonna try my best to figure that out pretty quick and get cracking! In the meantime, enjoy this first taste of what we've got!
> 
> Title is from 38 Special's Teacher, Teacher. It seemed a little less cliche than using Hot for Teacher ^^;.

'Shit shit SHIT I'm late this is bad sHIT LAMP-'

Professor Angus Macgyver spun around a lamp post, narrowly missing a collision with a book-laden student, as he raced across the lawn of UCLA. As one of the youngest professors on the campus at only 26, he was already under pressure to make a good impression, and being late on his first day of classes? Not a good look for him. He crossed the rest of the lawn at a dead sprint, headed for Math and Science rather than directly for Engineering IV. He paused at a road, vibrating as he waited for the traffic to clear before crossing and running up to the entrance. He bolted for one of the stairwells, taking the steps two at a time. That wasn't fast enough though, so with a quick mental calculation he hopped over the railing and slid down the side of the stairwell, eventually dropping to the ground from a couple feet up....

....and directly into someone else.

📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️

Professor Jack Dalton was, to put it mildly, having a really shitty morning. He'd been up all night dealing with a flashback and hadn't slept more than an hour, he'd spilled his coffee all over his 3rd favorite Metallica tee (before he could even drink it!), he was running late to his first class of the term (luckily a 101 and not one of his higher levels; the kids would probably appreciate the late start to his 8am), and now?

Now some bastard fell out of the sky and bowled him over. Sue him if the first thing out of his mouth was a little testy.

"Yo, asshole! Watch where you're fucking goin', dude!" He grunted from under the blonde crushing his spleen. He got an agitated "sorry" in response as the man got his arms under himself and lifted up. Jack found himself face to face with his accidental attacker.... And Lord in heaven he was _pretty_. Like, model level pretty with wide blue eyes, floppy golden hair and a chiseled jaw.

Then the man opened his mouth, and suddenly Jack was pissed again.

"Sorry man," he said as he stood up, making no move to help Jack up. "I didn't see you from the stairs." He was flippant, as if this incident was just a blip on his radar. And if there was anything Jack couldn't stand, it was a smug asshole who didn't even care that he'd run someone over.

"Well maybe you shoulda thought of that before you jumped off, huh?" Jack grumbled as he too got to his feet, dusting himself off and looking for his messenger bag. It was lying a couple inches away, all the lecture notes he'd made strewn about next to it and getting trampled by uncaring students. "Man, you messed up my lecture notes too; you know how long it took me to organize that shit?"

The blonde was too busy gathering up his own things to look. "I said sorry, man, I dunno what you want me to do about it."

Jack looked at him incredulously. "Uh, you could help me pick them up, ya know, unless you're too high-and-mighty with your probably brand new degree from some fancy University to help us lowly plebs out." And ok, maybe that was a little mean, but did he mention his day had been shit so far?

This time the blonde did look up, an incredulous look on his face. "Man, what the fuck is your problem, huh? I said sorry, ok! I got my own shit to pick up, sorry if I don't have time to help a misplaced cowboy pick up his own stuff."

Jack put his stuff down and stalked up to the blonde kid, getting right up in his face. To his credit, the kid didn't back down, standing toe to toe with the Texan. "Well maybe they don't teach you manners here in SoCal, city slicker, but back home they taught us _misplaced cowboys_ that it's polite to help the people we knock over. I guess you missed that lesson though, huh?"

The other man stood his ground, a fiery look in his eyes. "Yeah, well, around here we just apologize and go on about our business, old man. And we sure as hell don't get in people's faces about it!" Neither man noticed the crowd gathering around them, drawn by their shouting.

Years later, when they told the story about their explosive first meeting to family and friends, neither would remember who pushed who first; all they could remember was that one minute they were standing in front of each other, and the next they were rolling around on the ground, throwing punches and wrestling for the high ground.

📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️📎🖇️

Vice President Matilda Webber was having a good morning, thank you very much. Everything had been going smoothly for once; considering how hard that was to achieve on the first day of classes, of all days, should have clued her in that the peace wouldn't last. But, naively, she had hoped that it would continue.

Oh, how very wrong she was.

Jill was the one to inform her (one of many blessings that morning, she really needed to give the secretary a raise), as a regular listener to school gossip. Of course the day would tank via a fistfight in the Math and Science building, and between two professors no less! This day just couldn't get better.

Matty hurried down the corridor from one of the other engineering areas, furiously taking notes on her iPad about possible punishments for her two wayward staff members. She came into a commons a moment later, immediately hearing the commotion to her right. She caught a glimpse of one of the teachers through the crowd, and rolled her eyes with a groan. Of _course_ it was Dalton, it was always Dalton when shit like this went down. She approached the crowd, an idea already forming in her mind for the perfect punishment.

"Alright, break it up kids, I know you all have classes you should be in so scram! This ain't a schoolyard brawl, and you're not in high school anymore, so why don't you act like it?" Matty's sharp voice echoed in the open area, dispersing the gathered students almost immediately. When the Vice President of UCLA told you to scram? You scrammed, like, yesterday.

Apparently two of her 'finest academics in the state' didn't get that message, however, as they hadn't even let up in their wrestling. Now that she had a better view of the fight, she recognized the other professor as her new Engineering 101 teacher, a young kid still green around the ears and yet ludicrously over qualified for his position. Ohhhh this day just kept getting better; President Oversight would flip a gasket when she told him about this incident. Oh well, first things first.

"YO, WWE WANNABES! **KNOCK IT OFF**!"

That finally broke the two apart from where young Macgyver had put Dalton in a headlock (Matty made note of that for future reference; good to know that Blondie could hold his own in a fight, even against a former Delta). Both leapt to their feet immediately and stood at Attention, eyes facing forward except for a few angry glances at each other. Matty sighed in defeat at their antics.

"At ease, boys, this ain't the Army and I sure as hell ain't your CO. But I _am_ your boss, so you two mind telling me why two of my best and brightest staff members were found brawling like teenagers in the middle of a crowd of your own students?"

Both men relaxed minutely, automatically moving to At Ease despite the VP's insistence that this wasn't the Army. Both looked sheepish, and started to speak at the same time.

"Vice President Webber I can expl-"

"Matty I swear it ain't what it looks lik-"

"Hey! One at a time, guys, I'd like to assume we're all adults here!" She pointed at Mac. "You first, Blondie, I'll let Dalton dig his own grave in a minute."

Mac hesitantly explained his story about being late, jumping over the railing and landing on Jack, the subsequent argument and the fight. "I swear, Ms. Webber, I didn't mean for it to get so heated, but he provoked me!"

Jack spluttered. "Me?! I was just mindin' my own business, walkin' to class, when you crashed into me and didn't even offer t'help! If anythin' you provoked _me_ with your ego and holier-than-thou attitude, dude!"

Matty quickly realized this was going nowhere. "COOL IT, BOTH OF YOU! You know what? I don't care who provoked who, because you should _both_ know better than to fistfight in a common area, but apparently I'm mistaken. Ultimately it doesn't matter, because you're both getting the same punishment anyways: an office reassignment, along with a week each of litter duty."

Both men looked confused, shocking them out of their argument. "An... Office reassignment?" Jack tentatively asked. "Matty, what're you goin' on about?"

"Yes, Jack, an office reassignment. You see, I just had a meeting yesterday with the treasury board; apparently, there was a delay in construction of the new office building south of the Med buildings, so there aren't enough offices for each staff member to have their own. I was going to have some of the art professors share since they basically live in each other's spaces anyways, but I've just found two perfect candidates for... Let's call it an Inter-departmental Unity Campaign, where two professors from different departments will share the same office over the course of 64 days, or an 8-week course."

Mac and Jack listened with dawning horror as they realized what Matty meant. "No!! Ms. Webber, I can't share an office with this-- this buffoon!"

"Uh uh, no way, Matty I ain't sharin' with no hoity-toity science brat!"

"I think you two missed the part where this _isn't a discussion_! You'd both better have your belongings moved out of your respective rooms and into Moore 205E by the end of the day, cause the new program starts immediately! Do I make myself clear, Professors Macgyver and Dalton?"

Mac and Jack glared at each other, but reluctantly nodded. 

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. Now get going before your students think class is cancelled."

Both men scrambled for opposite exits, muttering all the way. Matty watched them go, then with an eyeroll headed back towards her own office. She had a lot of damage control to do.


End file.
